1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a navigation system capable of recognizing a traffic lane of a vehicle that is traveling on a road, and a method of recognizing a traffic lane using the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In general, navigation systems applied to vehicles are devices that guide a driver along a roadway from an origin to a destination. The driver drives to the destination while looking at a map displayed on a terminal of the navigation system and/or while listening to sounds from the terminal of the navigation system. This navigation system combines information about positions of navigational satellites with spatial data of an electronic map, thereby displaying a position of a vehicle on a road represented by the map.
Such a navigation system, however, does not yet inform the driver of the position of a roadway (lane) along which the vehicle is traveling. That is, the navigation system merely guides left turns and right turns with respect to traffic lanes, and performs no guidance on the basis of the position of the lane along which the vehicle is traveling. For example, no navigation system provides guidance for lane changing when the driver of a vehicle, which is traveling along a lane other than the leftmost lane, intends to make a left turn. Thus, the driver suffers the inconvenience of checking a surrounding position of the navigation system, a position of the real road, and a current traffic lane, and then attempting the lane changing.
To eliminate this inconvenience, there are proposals for a method of burying a radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor in a road, a method of recognizing a lane using a camera, and so on.
However, in the case of the lane recognition using the RFID sensor, the RFID sensor must be buried in the entire road, and thus there is a limitation in the aspects of installation and maintenance. Further, radio communication should be used, and thus a recognition rate is dependent on surrounding weather and a speed of the vehicle.
In the case of the lane recognition using the camera, this has mainly been developed for lane departure warnings, and thus only the lane can be recognized. As such, it is almost impossible to know along which lane a vehicle travels. Further, when the road is covered with snow or is veiled in fog, the lane recognition is impossible.